Rhun ap Iorwerth: Following on from questions asked earlier about the impact of major events in Wales, we have a Welsh football team to be proud of, we have Welsh football supporters to be proud of, and we have a Welsh football association to be proud of, and its great credit to them all that Wales has been asked to put in a bid to potentially hold Euro 2020 games. Now, could we have a statement on what...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much for that update. I have four questions stemming from today’s statement. The first relates to expenditure. We heard in the statement that there was an increase of 65 per cent in expenditure on neurological conditions over the four years up to 2015. I wonder whether it would be possible to have an explanation for that particular trend, because it appears to be too much of...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 6. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on invest-to-save principles? (OAQ51070)[W]
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you for that response. I would like to suggest to the Cabinet Secretary that investing in developing medical education at an undergraduate level on a comprehensive level in north Wales—that is, including first-year students, and all the way through their studies—would be an excellent example of implementing the principles of invest-to-save. We know that Betsi Cadwaladr health board...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: I want to make a few comments, if I may, on the priority that Plaid Cymru placed on protecting budgets for Supporting People programmes. It is shocking that it took the Plaid Cymru intervention to secure the continuation of this funding. Over the past few weeks, I have met with a number of organisations in my constituency working in the field of homelessness—the Wallich, Digartref Ynys...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: You know full well that the sector have been told to expect this cut of 10 to 15 per cent.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: We obviously can’t overemphasise the importance of getting our sporting offer right in Wales, not only for national well-being and celebrating our heritage and so on, as the Minister says, but more importantly as a means of getting us healthier, and as we look forward to the formation of the first obesity strategy for Wales—it’s come about as a result of our amendment to the Public...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 1. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on medical education in north Wales? (OAQ51097)[W]
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you. I do understand that I have been asking questions of the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport on medical education to date, but it’s good to ask a question to you as the Cabinet Secretary for Education today. Now that the pre-budget agreement has secured development funding for undergraduate medical education in Bangor, will you, as the education Secretary, tell us...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Diolch, Llywydd. Now, too many patients are still experiencing excessive waiting times for treatment, and I’d like to focus firstly on orthopaedic waiting times in Betsi Cadwaladr health board. I have a constituent who’s been clinically prioritised as needing urgent orthopaedic surgery. He has currently waited 66 weeks for this urgent treatment and isn’t expecting treatment until March...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: You described there what you’d like to see happening in time, and you’re waiting for reports; you’ll consider reports. This is happening now, people waiting over 100 weeks, and my question specifically related to what could be done now in order to speed up the waits for people who have been waiting in pain, leading to further problems with their health. You often claim that waiting...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Again, this is a message we hear time and time again, that this isn’t a specifically Welsh issue, this is a problem throughout the UK, whether it be recruitment or retention or whatever else, but we know that this is a service that is being provided in other parts of the UK. In fact, the North Bristol NHS Trust stroke lead has said that the failure to get a grip on things in Cardiff and in...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you very much, Llywydd. One of our most valuable treasures, which is appreciated over and above every other public service in Wales, I’m sure I’m right in saying, is the health service, the NHS, and the most valuable resource of the NHS is its workforce—those people who, through a combination of their skills and their commitment, ensure that each and every one of us can get the...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Will you take an intervention?
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you for taking an intervention. Perhaps now is a good time to say that you will look at developing, using the new funding that we agreed pre-budget, and exploring year 1 to year 5 undergraduate, in partnership with Cardiff, Swansea, anybody else, in Bangor, not just the additional placements for students from elsewhere in the north.
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you, Llywydd, and I thank everybody who’s taken part in the debate today. We all bring experience, don’t we, to a discussion like this. Some of us, like Dr Dai Lloyd, bring professional experience, medical experience. The majority of us bring experience of speaking to health professionals within the NHS, and the pressure that they tell us often is on them, and all of us, no doubt,...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: 8. Will the First Minister provide an update on plans for a third crossing across the Menai strait? (OAQ51176)[W]
Rhun ap Iorwerth: Thank you for that. I’m pleased that, in our pre-budget agreement, we secured funding to develop this project, which is needed not just because of the frustrations for people because of delays in crossing the bridge but in order to provide resilience for the crossing between Anglesey and the mainland. On 15 June last year, I made an appeal to ensure that the National Grid should make a...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: We have a portrayal here of a situation that is under control. Of course, there are areas, be that geographic areas or areas of specialism, where great ground has been made and things are getting better. There are signs that things are getting better, but, certainly, for too many patients, especially in orthopaedics and ophthalmology, certainly in the Betsi Cadwaladr area, there is real...
Rhun ap Iorwerth: There are two main elements to the statement and I thank the Minister for that statement. The first of those elements is that there’s been some praise of some elements of the integrated care fund—previously the intermediate care fund. I will take this opportunity, if I may, to remind the Chamber that that fund was part of a budgetary agreement with Plaid Cymru, and we’re pleased that we...
